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Beginners FAQ on sausage making, meat curing etc may often be found at the head of each relevant section, but here is the place to ask experienced users for advice if you are still stuck or need more information...we're here to help!

I need some help/advise. So I'm make biltong and droewors regularly (beef-cured and dried) as I'm a southern African and I use both the traditional methods and my biltong box. I've recently wanted to start making chorizo and salami and have followed the river cottage recipe on YouTube to make Salami-all has gone well and I've hang it in my biltong box to incubate but have not turned the fan on.

Question 1) Can I dry the salami in the biltong box?Question 2) After 24hrs incubation period can I turn my biltong box on to dry the salami with a 40w bulb?Question 3) Can you actually make Salami this way as it's a fast drying process, my biltong is normally ready in 2/3 days?Question 4) Has anyone ever tried this method?Or does Salami need to air dry in a pantry?

Thanks, any advise or help greatly appreciated as I've 24hrs to decide.

I am sure more experience will be along shortly to answer you question, but one difference between Salami and Biltong (also have my biltong box ready togo!) is that Salami is a 'cured' product and Biltong far all intents and purposes is just dried meat (very good dried meat !!).

SimonSez wrote:I am sure more experience will be along shortly to answer you question...

Ditto. Though in my case, I see Clostridium botulinum still doesn't exist in Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall's rustic utopia; although Steve Lamb seems to recognise the importance of an acidic environment, even if a glug of wine seems like lip-service.

Welcome to the forum. You can use your biltong box to ferment the salami for 1-2 days depending upon the starter culture you've used and the amount of sugar you've given the bacteria. The safety hurdle is to have the pH drop to below 5.3. For the drying phase, the salami should be put in a cooler environment, 10-13 C with humidity in the range of 80-85 %. The idea is to have the salami lose moisture slowly and in a uniform fashion. The condition that is trying to be avoided is drying the outside and having a wet inside, "dry-rim". Aside from the aesthetics, the inner part could grow harmful bacteria in the wet anaerobic conditions.

Thanks so much guys. So I hung the salami for a 24hrs incubation period in the biltong box (with fan off) and in the airing cupboard overnight-then I chose the traditional method of hanging it in the pantry and Godwilling it seems to be working beautifully. Thanks for all the good useful information.